Through the Real

Peace, one and all…

‘Forgetting the self is remembering the Real.  Anyone who knows the Real through the Real is alive, and anyone who knows the Real through his self perishes’

Bayazid Bistami, as recorded in Attar’s Memorials of the Saints

The Meaning of the Four Books

Peace, one and all…

Those who learned to be truly human
found everything in being humble.
While those who looked proudly from above
were pushed down the stairs.
A heart that must always feel superior
will one day lose its way.
What should be within, leaks out.

The old man with the white beard
never sees the state he’s in.
He needn’t waste money on making the Hajj,
if he’s broken someone’s heart.

The heart is the seat of God,
where God is aware.
You won’t find happiness
in either world, if you break a heart.

The deaf man doesn’t hear,
the blind man mistakes the day for night.
Yet the universe is filled with light.
We’ve seen how those who came later move on.

Whatever you think of yourself,
think the same of others.
This is the meaning of the Four Books,
if they have one.

May Yunus not stray from the path,
nor get on his high horse.
May the grave and the Judgement be no concern,
if what he loves is the face of God
Yunus Emre

I found listening to Surah al-Tin after reading this poem very powerful.  This recitation by Sa`ad al-Ghamdi is especially beautiful.  You can find a recitation of the entire Quran by Shaykh al-Ghamdi at the Complete Holy Quran You Tube channel.

Reflecting on the First of All Commandments

Peace, one and all…

‘And Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all commandments is, hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and with all thy understanding, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.  And the second commandment is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  There is no other commandment greater than these’ (Mark 12:29-31)

This is a truly beautiful passage from the Gospel of Mark.  In it Jesus (alaihi al-salam) responds to a learned Rabbi’s earnest question: ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’  Our beloved master’s response, that love is the greatest commandment, is beautiful and profound.

I came across this passage once again, recently, and was struck not only by its beauty, but by its deeply evocative description of love as arising in life-giving oneness.  Of course, Islam understands God’s nature differently than Christianity, but the oneness I refer to is not primarily theological in that sense.  Rather, as I read this passage, I am struck by how it calls us to see the Divine as being behind, and yet mysteriously within, all things.  I was also struck by the way in which it bids humankind to respond with everything to God’s call.

However, before proceeding any further, it is worth pointing out that I do not intend to explain these verses, as though ‘I’ know what they ‘really’ mean.  This is for two reasons.  Firstly, although, as a human being, humanity’s collective spiritual heritage is mine to draw on, I do not intend to interpret this Christian scripture to anyone, much less the worldwide Christian tradition.  Secondly, what do I know anyway?  No, my purpose here is simply to respond, to explore the profound beauty of these wonderful verses.  Anything right or true, comes from God.  Only the mistakes are mine.

Our verse begins with the Shema, the quintessential expression of Jewish monotheism: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord’ (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).  Love arises first in the Divine, a Unity unto Itself.  The world comes into being, and is sustained moment by moment by that love.  To ‘love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and with all thy understanding, and with all thy strength’ is thus to come into harmony with that overflowing Divine love.  It is also to use our every faculty in pursuit of that aim.  Our hearts, our souls/personalities, understandings and strengths, must all be dedicated towards the One, the Source of All.

It is, therefore, surely noteworthy that Jesus (as) begins with the heart, long perceived as the intellectual and spiritual centre of the human being.  Sufi tradition understands the heart as a kind of meeting-place, in which the physical and subtle energy centres of a human being meet.  The heart is also the primary entry-point of spirit, the divinely gifted source of life.  Our capacity to love thus arises in the heart, and is itself a gift from God.  In other words, our ability to love is given to us by the Divine; we are given everything we need to respond fully to that call.

If the heart is the centre, the ‘soul’ is the place in which our everyday notions of ourselves arise.  Sufi tradition understands, broadly, that the ‘soul’ (or nafs in Arabic) is born from a kind of union between spirit (ruh) and our bodies.  By soul, I am also referring to our psychological constitutions, our personalities, and our egos.  This verse shows me that I can and indeed must love God in the very depths of my soul.  Moreover, we are here told that our egos are capable of loving God, of becoming an active participant in our transformations.  I find this profound, because it echoes the deepest registers of Sufi thought, and also because it offers a healing truth: our individualities, our workaday selves are valuable and part of a deep and noble purpose.

‘And with all thy understanding’.  That Jesus (as) should mention understanding after both the heart and the soul is interesting.  It is interesting because it suggests that in truth the intellect is the servant of the heart and soul.  It is also interesting because it suggests that mere intellection has its own limits, when not grounded in the heart’s spiritual reality.  Moreover, it contradicts the idea that spiritual growth is somehow against learning and knowledge per se.  Perhaps the real point being alluded to here is that intellect must also serve.  It must not master us.

‘And with all thy strength’.  Not only do we possess strength, we also possess weakness – which is to say that our strength has its limitations.  If, however, we can open ourselves to Divine love, we can partake of the heart’s strength, which arises in the infinite love of God.  That is, if we serve in love’s cause, ‘our’ strength is enfolded by His strength.  An Arabic phrase expresses this beautifully: la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah (‘there is no power or might except in God’).

‘And the second commandment is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  There is no other commandment greater than these’.  By these words, Jesus (as) again draws on the deep roots of Judaism, being a re-iteration of Leviticus 19:18.  Once we come into harmony with love, our path takes us beyond ourselves, out into the world.  The perfection of love lies in service to others – with the understanding that service to God’s creatures is service to God Himself.  To love our neighbour as ourselves means many things – ethical treatment, justice, respect, and beyond all of these a deep love for those around us, that runs beyond mere superficiality, beyond sentimentality.  Moreover, from the perspective of oneness, it is God’s love that brings these relationships into existence.  We are faced with the Divine regardless of the direction we look.  The Quran expresses this most beautifully:

‘And to God belongs the east and the west.  So wherever you turn, there is the Face of God.  Indeed, God is All-Encompassing, All-Knowing’ (2:115)

May the Divine Beloved open our hearts, our souls, our minds, our bodies, and every relationship we partake of, to His overflowing grace, mercy and love.

May all that you do this day be blessed.

Wa akhiru da`wana an il hamdu lillahi rabbil alameen.

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

And When I Love Him…

Peace, one and all…

The Messenger of God, may God give him blessings and peace, said:

God, ever blessed and exalted is He, says: “Whoever treats a friend of Mine as an enemy, on him I declare war.  My servant  draws near to Me by nothing dearer to Me than that which I have established as a duty for him.  And My servant does not cease to approach Me through supererogatory acts until I love him.  And when I love him, I become his hearing with  which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he grasps, and his foot with which he walks.  And if he asks Me [for something], I give it to him. If he seeks refuge with Me, I place him under My protection.  In nothing do I hesitate so much as I hesitate [to take] the soul of a believer.  He has a horror of death, and I have a horror of hurting him”

 Reported by al-Bukhari, according to Abu Hurayra.

Here is a beautiful ney solo to accompany these words.  May we all know the beauty of such love.

There is but one Way

Peace, one and all…

There is but one Way.  There is but one Truth.  And yet, the means by which this way, this truth, is realised are as numberless as the grains of sand upon the shore.  There are as many one ways as there are people to walk them.  There are as many one truths as there are eyes to see, and hearts to feel.

In this realm of multiplicity, the singular, unique and living truth is filtered through all the minds, hearts and voices of creation. That is, language is a function of duality, of multiplicity, in that languages are attempts to strike a balance between personal and shared meanings.  The truth itself is wordless, in that its origin lies beyond our human world.  As truth descends into this realm it needs must be expressed in a given time, in a given language, in a given context.  And, because each human ‘filter’ may be more or less obstructed in their ability to see and hear, so the amount of ‘pure truth’ they can perceive and express differs.

For me, this means several things.  Firstly, it reminds me of my duty to listen lest I inadvertently spurn some particle of truth. Secondly, it underlines the necessity for humility.  My words and ideas and meanings are limited; I do not perceive truth clearly.  Therefore, others may well understand things with far greater clarity than I do.  Even these words I now write are partial, limited, temporal.  They mark out this moment’s attempt to understand and speak truth – they do not capture Truth Itself.  Thirdly, multiplicity exists within unity, within oneness. In our own unique ways, we all attempt to express this oneness.

And may that Oneness be forever exalted.

Wa akhiru da’wana an il hamdu lillahi rabbil alameen.

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman